Mis-Quotations From Scripture.
By N. Y. Observer
THE articles on this subject which have appeared in the Observer, and are deserving of serious attention, might be greatly extended. No book is quoted so frequently as the Bible. An apposite and correct quotation from it, adds strength and beauty to editorial or essay, speech or sermon; in short to any literary production whatever. A misquotation from it, not only shocks the sensibilities of the accurate scholar, but impairs the effect of all the thoughts that are presented in connection with it. Even if the idea embodied in the quotation is preserved with the utmost exactness, a departure from verbal accuracy is always disagreeable.26 Sometimes we hear quotations made as from the Bible which have not even a verbal similarity to any passage of scripture. "God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb," is such a quotation, but the error has been so frequently exposed that few now ascribe the sentence to any other than its real author—Sterne. Misquotations preserving some shadow of resemblance to the language of God's word are quite numerous and are often made. "Spare the rod and spoil the child" has been quoted by many a good woman as scriptural authority for the chastisement of unruly children. An approximation to it may be found in Prov. xiii, 24: "He that spareth the rod hateth his son." "As the tree falls so it lies," is frequently cited in discussion with Universalists, in connection with texts proving the unalterable condition of man after death. The true reading is, "If the tree fall toward the south or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth there it shall be." Eccl. xi, 3. In the prayers offered in social meetings we often hear—"Thou hast said, 'Where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them, and that to bless them.'" The last clause of the sentence is a very scriptural inference from the preceding clause, but it was not said by Christ. None are more liable to misquote the Bible than those who have the most frequent occasion to quote it. Intimate familiarity with the thought does not always ensure an exact recollection of the words. It was told by an aged clergyman, that at a meeting of an association of Congregational ministers, a candidate for licensure read a sermon from the words. "Work while the day lasts." The sermon was sound in doctrine, and free from rhetorical faults, but the old minister suggested to the candidate that he ought to write a companion sermon from the parallel passage, "Make hay while the sun shines." The astonished candidate soon learned, and never forgot, that the language of Christ as recorded in John ix, 4, is—"I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day." The true and only remedy for misquotation is never to cite a passage,—certainly never in writing,—without verifying it by "turning up" the passage and copying it directly from the book. A rigid adherence to this rule will save from many mortifying blunders. It has saved the writer from one in preparation of this very article.—N. Y. Observer.